A new task force, set up by the Joint Council on Youth last October, will meet for the first time on 19 February 2021 to examine ways of greening the youth sector and including young people’s right to a healthy environment in the work.

At a time when the Council of Europe is underlining the intrinsic link between a healthy environment and the very enjoyment by every human being of their rights and liberties under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights,* the Joint Council on Youth organised a debate on “Climate crisis and global governance” in June 2020. This task force is one of the tangible outcomes of that debate.

During Friday’s meeting, members of the Joint Council and youth sector staff will consider:

• drawing up guidelines on how to introduce the perspectives of climate neutrality and sustainability into the Youth Department’s activities and policymaking;
• creating a sustainability checklist for all activities organised by the Youth Department;
• proposing a methodology for introducing a green perspective in cross-sectoral work with Council of Europe bodies;
• considering a CM recommendation on the young people’s access to a healthy environment.

The conclusions of the consultative meeting on “The climate crisis, young people and democracy” (16-18 February 2021) will inform the work of the task force.

The task force will present its conclusions to the Joint Council on Youth in October 2021.

 For further information

 * Final declaration, high-level conference organised by the Georgian Presidency of the Committee of Ministers, 27 February 2020

 Human rights and the environment, a priority for the Council of Europe (webpage)

 Do we have the right to a healthy environment? (video)

Factsheet of the Court: Environment and the European Convention on human rights (2019)

Manual on human rights and the environment (2nd edition, 2012)